![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/mushroom_spliff.jpg\")
A kind of indie-underground supergroup, Mushroom is at its core the brainchild of Pat Thomas. Combining avant-garde, free jazz and krautrock influences and textures might \u2013 to the causal listener, at least \u2013 sound extraordinarily unappetizing. But the truth is that Messages from the Spliff Bunker<\/i> is a challenging sonic experience that yields rewards for the engaged listener.<\/p>\n
\u201cLooking for Adventure\u201d has a go-go jazz feel, not unlike the kind of thing one might expect to hear on the soundtrack to a spy adventure of the late\u2019 60s. The heavily distorted keyboards have a saucy, aggressive character. And the beat and melody are quite accessible. The liner notes let us know that there are three drummers (David Brandt in your left ear, Thomas in the center, Marc Weinstein on the right) but any fears that Mushroom will sound like Grateful Dead or Doobie Brothers are wholly (and mercifully) unfounded. This is deep groove music, with Matt Cunitz\u2019s keyboards at the center of the tune\u2019s universe. Digging deep into the krautrock aesthetic, few have done so much with so few chords. If Neu! made souljazz, it might sound like this.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne Ton Anvil\u201d is cut from very different sonic cloth. Spare, abstract percussion is joined by keening, atonal bursts of guitar that recall Lizard<\/i>-era Robert Fripp. Dollops of Erik Pearson\u2019s flute and sax are applied here and there. It\u2019s a dizzying mix of sounds that feels completely improvised.<\/p>\n
The tribal thumps of \u201cI\u2019m Ok, You\u2019re Not OK\u201d are joined by bloops and bleeps of the sort that confuse the listener: are they acoustic or electronic? Overdriven organ or something else? The source of the sounds is ultimately less important than the sounds themselves. Occasional melodic licks dart in and out of the heady mix, but as a whole the track is unstructured, impressionistic. The three percussionists defy time and space, sounding like a six-armed beast (but not<\/i>, it should be noted, like the final, three-drummer King Crimson).<\/p>\n
The one-chord \u201cDon\u2019t Hate Me Because I\u2019m Beautiful\u201d takes its time to unfold. Once it does, the track bears a vague resemblance to Obscured by Clouds<\/i>-era Pink Floyd, albeit with tasty vibraphone runs and other jazz-leaning elements worked into the recipe. Grading accessibility quotient on a curve (hey, I<\/i> like it!), \u201cDon\u2019t Hate Me\u201d provides the most poptastic ten minutes on the double LP. And it is in fact beautiful.<\/p>\n
The entirety of Side Three is taken up by the 18-minute \u201cMarc Moved to Buffalo.\u201d As one might well expect of such a lengthy track, it unfolds slowly. Sparkling keyboards and languorous drumming build in intensity, \u201cCareful With That Axe, Eugene\u201d style minus the nightmarish screaming. The piece moves through many different textures, with the beat ebbing and flowing, each player taking his turn to explore the sonic reaches of eternity. Paul Hoaglin lets us know that he owns a wah-wah pedal, too. The ending moments of the track are mesmerizing, somnolent and evocative, somehow all at once.<\/p>\n
Side Four is the mainstream, catchy part of Messages from the Spliff Bunker<\/i>. No, I\u2019m kidding; it\u2019s every bit as out-there as what has come before. \u201cIn Dreams Begin Responsibilities\u201d is \u2013 if anything \u2013 more abstract than anything on the first three sides. Ned Doherty\u2019s cyclical bass work evokes thoughts of Bitches Brew<\/i>. Continuing the album\u2019s playful character, the set concludes with \u201cVictor Krummenacher vs. Jorma Kaukonen,\u201d name checking two artists not involved with the project. Otherworldy sounds dominate, taking the sound toward musique concr\u00e9te frontiers.<\/p>\n
A wild ride, and one well worth taking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A kind of indie-underground supergroup, Mushroom is at its core the brainchild of Pat Thomas. Combining avant-garde, free jazz and krautrock influences and textures might \u2013 to the causal listener, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27396,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,39,40,42,43,49,54,57,65,4071,73],"tags":[2980,2684],"class_list":["post-27395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-acid-jazz","category-avant-garde","category-indie","category-instrumental","category-jazz","category-krautrock","category-new-release","category-post-rock","category-psych","category-review","category-trance","category-vinyl","tag-mushroom","tag-pat-thomas","cat-2-id","cat-7-id","cat-39-id","cat-40-id","cat-42-id","cat-43-id","cat-49-id","cat-54-id","cat-57-id","cat-65-id","cat-4071-id","cat-73-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27395"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27395\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27413,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27395\/revisions\/27413"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}